Meet Jan Elder and Peridot Keaton-Jones

Today we welcome Jan Elder, author of one of our 2015 Christmas Extravaganza titles. It's great to get to know Jan, but today we have a special treat. Peridot Keaton-Jones is with us--our heroine from A Semi-Precious Christmas



What is your writing schedule like?

I have a full time job and I'm a night person so most of my writing is done on the weekends or sometime in the wee, small hours of the night.

How did you come up with your title? 

There was a jewelry store robbery right up the street from us. It's family owned and upscale but small-town. As to the Semi-Precious part, my own birthstone is a Peridot so the name of my heroine, Peri, fit right in.

What's your next project?

I'm writing a book about a chocolate shop, tentatively title A Semi-Sweet Christmas. Can you imagine the yummy research I get to do?

How can readers reach you?

I LOVE to hear from readers. My website address is JanElderAuthor.com



 And now a word from Peridot 


Hi Peridot. Please introduce yourself and tell us about you!

Hi and thank you for having me. My name is Peridot Keaton-Jones. I've been a jewelry store manager for several years, and I love my job.

Tell us about where you live and why you choose to live there?

I live in a little town in central Maryland. I guess I live here because it's always been home. Why leave a place that makes you happy?

What's a quirk of your personality that most people wouldn't know?

I've always wanted to write a book, but then, doesn't everyone? Maybe someday...

Who chronicled your story and why do you think she chose you?

The author of my story is a customer of mine and we've been friends for quite awhile. She has the best husband ever who pays attention to her likes and dislikes. Do you know he's already bought her a  necklace for Christmas? I think he's a lot like my Chris. Thoughtful.

What obstacles did you have to overcome in order to reach your happily-ever-after?

After my husband died suddenly, I sort of closed in on myself. The years immediately after were pretty foggy, and I'm still healing, but I'm ready now to move on and date again.

Tell us about your knight in shining armour. What makes him so special?

Ah. See this big grin on my face? That's because of Chris. He was right there when I needed him and he didn't pull back even when I didn't completely trust him. I praise God that he appeared in my life at just the right time.

The first time you saw him, did you like him immediately or did he have to grow on you?

The first time I saw him, I feared for his life since there was a robber with a gun in  my store. I was afraid the thug was going to turn the weapon on Chris. Hard not to like a guy who stares down a gun barrel and stays when he could have run hard in the other direction, right? 

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A special thanks to Jan Elder for today's special interviews.
http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_41&products_id=707

On a bright, crisp December morning, jewelry store manager, Peridot Keaton-Jones, arrives at work expecting to find her beloved uncle, Marty. Instead, she’s greeted by the muzzle of a gun pressed to her temple. When thugs assault her, threaten her life, and steal thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, Peri can only pray her uncle is late to work for the first time in his life. 

Christopher Lane is a TV news cameraman in the right place at the right time. He witnesses the heist, calls the police, and offers help when Peri needs it most. She can't deny her attraction, but is he really her hero, or is he just after a story? And with Christmas right around the corner, can Peri and Chris avert a holiday disaster? 

BUY NOW

Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view. 

A delivery truck
An elephant
A dog sled

Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view.

A jewelry box
A golf ball
A buffalo 

One Minute Editor: Four Things Every Writer Should Know about Track Changes

These days, much editing is done using Microsoft Word’s Track Changes feature. It’s a great tool, and I’d like to share with you four things every writer should know about Track Changes.

**Note** This One Minute EditorTM runs about four minutes!



  1. Change your view. Sometimes, the multiple changes made to a
    document can seem overwhelming. Don’t be afraid to change the way the document looks on the screen. To do this, navigate to the Track Changes option and change the “view” from Final: Show Markup to Final. This will show you a clean document as it will be once all the changes are accepted. Then, edit at will. Your changes are still tracked, just temporarily hidden from view.

    (Note that changing the view to Final, will also hide comments.)



    If you’d rather see all the tracked changes, but are distracted by the different colours imposed by multiple editors, try changing the Track Changes Markup options so that the insertions and deletions are noted in the specific colour of your choice (choose from the drop-down) rather than “by author.

  2. Accept or Reject more than one change at a time. Sometimes, you’ll
    see several edits in a row that you would like to accept or reject, but you don’t necessarily want to accept or reject all changes in the document. You may have even highlighted several changes and then tried right-clicking to accept/reject them, but to no avail. There is a way to do this, however.

    First, highlight all the changes you’d like to accept or reject. (i.e. click and drag your mouse over the changes.) Once you have the changes highlighted, click the little down arrow under the accept/reject option and choose Accept and Move to next (or Reject and Move to next, if you are rejecting the changes.) This will accept/reject those highlighted changes and then move your curser to the next change in the document.

  3. Accept or Reject the changes of one editor. Sometimes, when multiple editors have made changes to a document, you’ll want to accept all
    changes made by one or more of the editors, while leaving other editors’ changes in play. This is accomplished with a two-step process. First, in the Show Markup/Reviewers options, check/uncheck editor names until the only editors checked are the editors of the changes you want to ACCEPT. All other editors’ changes will then be hidden from view.

    Now you’ve done that, click the little down arrow under the Accept option and then choose Accept all changes shown.


    To reject changes made by one or more of the editors, while leaving the other editors’ changes in play, in the Show Markup/Reviewers options, check/uncheck editor names until the only editors checked are the editors of the changes you want to REJECT. All other editors’ changes will then be hidden from view. Now you’ve done that, click the little down arrow under the Reject option and then choose Reject all changes shown.

  4. Blow up or deflate your balloons. Sometimes it’s better to have your
    changes shown inline in the document, and sometimes it’s cleaner to have all edits show up in the balloon to the right of the document. Choose the option which best fits your mood: 
    • NEVER means your changes will be shown inline and your comments will be noted as a footnote where inserted.
    • ALWAYS means all insertions, deletions, formatting changes and comments will appear in balloons, and
    • ONLY FOR COMMENTS/FORMATTING
      • means the insertions and deletions will be shown inline and formatting changes and comments will appear in balloons in the markup area.
I'm Nicola Martinez, and that's your One Minute EditorTM tip for today.


Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view. 

A red-tailed hawk
Cow tipping
A shooting star

One Minute Editor: The Preposition Proposition

Hi! Nicola Martinez, editor-in-chief for Pelican Book Group. Here with today’s One Minute Editor tip.

Tighten those sentences!
 

A quick and easy way to tighten sentences is to eliminate instances of the “double preposition.” (If you don’t know all the prepositions, I encourage you to learn them—or keep a list you can easily reference.)  As a quick mnemonic reminder on what a preposition is think of the lion and the bridge. A preposition is anything the lion can do to the bridge*: He can stand behind it, walk on it, swim under it, go around it, over it—even through it, if he’s a magical lion. :) Behind, on, under, around, over, through… these are all prepositions. There are
150 or so in total.

Now run a search for prepositions. In any sentence where there are two prepositions in a row, eliminate one of them wherever possible. For example: John sat down on the couch. The prepositions in this sentence are DOWN** and ON. Cut one of them: John sat on the couch. Another example: She stepped out onto the balcony. The prepositions are OUT and ONTO. Cut one of them: She stepped onto the balcony.

This may seem like a little thing because it doesn’t really change the meaning of the sentence, but eliminating all unnecessary words in each sentence will definitely tighten your manuscript and make it stronger.

I’m Nicola Martinez and this has been your One Minute Editor tip.

*This mnemonic is supplied as an elementary aid to spur the memory. The “what the lion can do to the bridge” theory will not support every preposition. 
**some prepositions may be used in other parts of speech. For example, DOWN may be an adverb, adjective, etc. It is used in this example because it directly precedes the preposition ON, and can therefore be cut.

Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view. 

A bookshelf
A mullet 
A fur coat

Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view. 

A baseball bat
A wedding dress
A mailbox